Ethereal Love

I have to give out a link here. Luminiferous aether and a grumpy old man named Hubert? What's not to love?

Voting

I have decided my plan for the final few days of this election season. I'm praying for a freak dual meteor strike to clear the efenant and donk top slot so we can have a do-over with better candidates. I'm uncertain as to which deity is the controlling authority for an incident of this nature, so I'm throwing a few words at all of them I can remember. I figure if Jesus won't hook me up, Cthulhu might. I'll freely admit it ain't much of a plan, but it beats drinking myself into a stupor so I don't have to listen to the blathering.

As long as we're on the subject, here's how a bunch of other people are voting. I think the short summation is as follows.

A) voting is for suckers
B) McCain, because Obama will screw things up
C) Obama, because the GOP is the suck
D) Barr, because both major parties suck

Pick one and move on. However, if you're in need of a good reason for the vote you've already decided to cast, maybe you can swipe a more eloquent version than my list.

I have to admit, the drinking myself into a stupor still sounds like a pretty good fallback plan if the meteors fail to appear.

Humbug and Bother

I'm tired of this election season. I want both major party candidates banished to the Island of Misfit Mascots while they contemplate their sins. Neither Obiden nor McPalin has a whole lot to offer me except further erosion of the Constitution and unsustainable spending. I can't really support either one of those policies.

So instead of the insightful commentary you've come to expect from us, even if it is heavily cribbed from Will this year, I offer you some semi-frivolity.

Does anybody here consider epistemology frivolous? Just me? Well, here's an article on the nature of truth as discerned by Wikipedia.

Death, incest, chaos and the fall of the clan of Volsung. Hmm. That's not really frivolous either, is it?

Well, since I did say I would provide some frivolity, here's an exhaustive list of what frivolity will not be tolerated.

I know. Here, fun for all and frivolity should abound.

Hit F7

I work for a lovely global enterprise. The corporate headquarters is located abroad, and many of the staff come from other places where English is not the first, or even second, language. I have grown resigned to the more interesting sentence structures in corporate documents because of the translation effects. It's kind of amusing most days.

What still annoys me is when I get idiot level spelling mistakes. I have open in another window a document which purports to tell me the "Officlal Language" is English. As long as it's officlal, I guess it's all good, right?

Seriously, how hard is it to hit F7? It never strikes me as difficult, but maybe I'm anomalous. Of course, I'm one of those anal types that can't stand it when the little red underline appears.

I also have my email program set up to spell check before it sends. If you work in a corporation anywhere, you should have the spell-check option enabled. It's a simple way to help you avoid appearing like an idiot, especially if you type as poorly as I do.

O'Biden Campaign Promises

According to Joe Biden,

"Mark my words...It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

"I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate," [mentioning the Middle East and Russia] "And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you--not financially to help him--we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."

So basically, according to Joe Biden, if you elect Barack Obama President, the kind of change you're going to vote for is international crisis which will try our country further. Since it came from Obama's VP candidate, consider it a campaign promise.

Forget your tax increase, forget the Socialism, if you vote for Obama, you're voting for an active war with a nuclear Iran, or even Russia. Given Obama's prior record in the Senate on international matters coupled with his own words on the trail, all I can say is bone up on your Russian, your Chinese, and your Arabic ladies and gentlemen because under an Obama administration, we're over.

No point in being polite anymore, if you vote for Obama, you are a fucking moron. It is that simple.

Laziness Rewarded

So, I know I've mentioned Readerware in the past. I still think it's a fantastic program for keeping up with the number of books we keep around YPS Manor. At one point, I was contemplating exporting the catalog to a web page somewhere, based on the disputable fact of what you read determining who you are. Laziness has paid off for me yet again.

Somebody has done an app for me called LibraryThing. I have created an account and will post more after some experimentation.

Skully Goodness

If you believe, as I do, that skulls are an essential and integral part of home decor, this video featuring Noah Scalin from Skulladay is pretty cool. It's made all the more odd by the fact that Martha is showing you how to make skulls.

I have been told, but have not gotten around to verifying myself, that Martha's book on Halloween is actually worth picking up. I'd take that with a grain of salt, depending on your Martha tolerance, but it might be worth checking out.

Alas, for the second year in a row, we are not doing much in the way of Halloween. Too many other issues for this season. Hopefully next year we'll be a little more prepared for the season. I'm afraid a bag of candy for any nocturnal visitors will be our only concession.

Today I Had a John McCain Revelation

For the better part of a decade, I have commented that John McCain would be better off to be sent home by his constituents to take up a hobby and stop being a menace to the rest of us from his office in the Senate. So imagine my shock and horror when the man actually became the nominee for the political party with which I most identify. It has been perplexing me this entire campaign season, which is why I've posted so little about politics this round, as I know how I loathe the man and cannot bring myself to cast a ballot for him. I attempted to rationalize by saying that I am only voting against his freaky-ass, Hitler-like Socialist opponent, but it still brings me back to marking the box next to McCain's name, and that just isn't going to happen. That is why I decided this year to cast my ballot for the Libertarian candidate, Bob Barr. At least Barr has mostly the right ideas about where our country needs to head.

That aside, I have many friends who are in a similar situation to me with regard to their distaste for McCain; however, they believe (much like I do honestly) that the ballot I will be casting for Barr will be in essence a "wasted ballot". I am calling it a protest, but many of my friends don't want to protest because they're too afraid of what an Obama administration might mean. So, they, despite my attempted influence, cannot bring themselves to vote for Barr. Well friends, fret no more! I have finally pontificated a reason for you to march with pride right into that election room and proudly cast your ballot for John McCain: term limits.

I know you're thinking I'm delirious, but follow my reasoning. McCain will probably be re-elected to the Senate for as long as he wants to sit there and fester, coddle Democrats, and push anti-constitutional legislation; BUT, if he's elected President, he is only constitutionally allowed to serve for a maximum of 8 years. He then goes the hell home to hang out at the VFW, the American Legion, or whatever it is he does in his spare time. We get to say, "sayonara old dude" and he's out of our collective hair. Imagine the prospect of knowing that we will have to contend with John McCain for only 8 more years MAX. It brings a smile to my face and a gleam to my eye just imagining it.

Some might say, "well, you could make the same argument about Obama," but you can't and here's the difference. McCain actually does shit in the Senate, scary, horrible shit. Obama, on the other hand, is the exact type Senator you want if a collection of imbeciles are going to be stupid enough to continue to vote him in there. He's useless, worthless, and does nothing. Let him sit right there in his Senate office and pick his giant nose until he drops dead. Half the time he's not going to show up to as much as vote anyway. Put Obama in the White House and you're going to bring all of his Communist puppeteers and fellow travelers with him. These losers will take over an entire branch of government, appoint enough Justices to screw up another, and because Obama is such an eloquent speech reader, we're going to have to listen to him extol the virtues of Marxism for probably 8 years. Think about the delicate ears of our children! BLEAGH, no thanks. We're having enough trouble with the socialist retards in the Congress ruining our economy, so there's no reason to shift them around to all 3 branches of government.

McCain, on the other hand, is so damned boring, nobody will listen. He'd probably appoint justices at least better than David Souter, who is at least better than Ruth Bader Ginsburg (kinda). He has a horrible rotten temper, which is probably just the kind of guy I want facing off with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with his hand squarely on the button O' doom. In short, he can hold the spot and be mostly harmless for 8 years until we can get Sarah Palin into the job. I really like her and look forward to the opportunity to vote for her someday.

Filler

So, we’ve been a bit busy with the move to new digs. YPS Manor and all of its inhabitants (me, J, N, Dog v2.0, turticle) have relocated to the northern edges of the Houston metro area. The old house is still for sale, so if you’re looking to relocate just south of 225, drop me an e-mail.

In an attempt to fill space and remind people we do occasionally post content, here’s some of the search terms people are using to find us – with commentary!

philosophical halloween costumes and philosophy costumes – It’s much harder to dress as an actual philosophy, so I’d probably stick with philosophers. Go as one of the old Greeks. Wear a chiton and some rope sandals and call it good. Carry around a triangle and call yourself Pythagoreas if anybody asks. Or you could go as Schopenhauer, if you’ve got the hair to pull it off. Alas, so few of us do.

ayn rand philosophy sucks – Maybe, but you’ll have to deal with it sooner or later if you keep hanging around libertarians. I tend to think her philosophy would’ve gone over better if she didn’t write such crappy novels.

bucket full of fail – Here you are. A disaster starting from conception all the way through whatever the ultimate execution may turn out to be. A larger bucket I doubt I’ll see in my lifetime.

united nations sucks – Why, yes, yes it does. I know I’m glad my tax dollars help support corruption, incompetence and baby-raping in the third world. Here at home, tax dollars only support corruption and incompetence.

Hopefully, that’ll be enough content to tide you over for the weekend. I go home now to complete the monumental and arduous task of unpacking all my stuff.

The Voter Registrar

So, with all the news on voter fraud going on over the past couple of days, ACORN, Obama people, and the like, I notice this transcript that our local TV station broadcast recently.

I don't know about everywhere else, but I can tell you how voter registration and the rolls work in Harris county. Paul Bettencourt's office works his ass off on this, and Click 2 Houston isn't being entirely accurate. I am sure there are dead people on the rolls, but as long as a voter is shown voting (the name is signed in the voter book)...which means as long as the election workers in the precincts are perpetrating fraud, a voter will stay on the rolls.

A voter is placed in suspense if he goes something like 3 elections where he doesn't vote. The line next to his name in the sign in book will have a notation and the election worker must see a photo ID if he shows up. In the meantime notices are sent to the address of record. After the next general election, if no response is received by mail and the voter doesn't show, he's removed from the rolls altogether.

As a former Election Judge, I have personally dealt with an individual (stupid donk twit) who came in, was rude to my 82 year old Grandmother, started bitching and moaning because she wasn't on the rolls, demanded her right to vote, produced her ID, and let me look her up. I saw no record, so I called Bettencourt's super secret election day number for judges in situations like this. Guess what? Uncle Paul's office can tell me that she re-registered in OREGON the previous year. I look at the twit in question and state, "according to the voter registrar, you registered in the State of Oregon last year, is this true?" Then I sit back, secretly smile, and watch the idjit twitch. I say that is pretty darned impressive on behalf of the registrar's office.

Prior to the introduction of ESlate in Harris County, I witnessed in precincts in Sheila Jackson (TV) Lee's congressional district, the workers go through the books near the end of the polls closing, sign by peoples' names who didn't show, and vote for them. And yes, you can see there will be 4 or 5 people in a row with the exact same handwriting in the book. Where the problem lies in our area, is at the precinct level, and then post-election. An individual who ran for state rep several years ago in that same (Queen Sheila's) area lost his race by less than 500 votes due to a ballot box with a broken seal that arrived to the county at 2a. When issues are reported, certain folks cry racism, the matter is swept away, and rightfully elected candidates are branded as sore losers.

I think probably what the counties need to do in the case of the dead is link up with death certificates issued in their respective counties, drop a couple of cards in the mail, and if they get no contact, remove the voter. I honestly thought they already did this. I also would love to see more volunteer poll watchers assigned to these precincts to see what is really going on in those rooms. A lot of people need to go to jail.

As an aside, I think the key to involving more people in elections in general is making it an additional exemption to jury duty.

As a second aside, I find it odd that all of these fraud issues only seem to occur with Democrat organizations, in Democrat precincts, and with Democrat workers and voters. The news media tells us how everybody hates and disagrees with Republicans, and yet it is the Democrats who cheat at every level and still can't totally sweep elections. Hmmm...

And finally, I think it goes without saying that the lazy assed news media should really engage in a little more fact checking.